Collapsible fireplace grate



United States Patent 3,508,536 COLLAPSIBLE FIREPLACE GRATE James McEwan, 138 Stockton Ave., San Jose, Calif. 95126 Filed Dec. 16, 1968, Ser. No. 784,065 Int. Cl. F2311 13/02 U.S. Cl. 126-165 3 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A collapsible fireplace grate which is made in two sections hinged together. Either of the sections is adapted to be turned over upon the top of the other section so that the fireplace may be cleaned.

DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to a collapsible fireplace grate.

An object of this invention is to provide an improved fireplace grate made in two sections which are hinged together so that either of the sections may be turned over upon the top of the other and thus moved out of the way during the cleaning of the fireplace.

Another object of this invention is to provide an improved fireplace grate having two sections which are hinged together, each of said sections having a row of upright members along the front and the back thereof and the middle ones of said upright members on said sections being pivotally connected together so as to form a hinge whereby the sections are adapted to be turned over upon the other during the cleaning of the fireplace.

Still another object of this invention is to provide an improved fireplace grate which is made of two identical sections that are hinged together so that either of the sections may be turned over upon the top of the other during cleaning of the fireplace.

Other and further objects of this invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art to which it relates from the following specification, claims and drawing.

In accordance with this invention, there is provided an improved fireplace grate which is made of two identical sections hinged together. Each of these sections is provided with front and back upright members and one of the purposes thereof is to keep wood and other objects to be burned on the fireplace grate from falling therefrom. These upright members form a row on the front and on the back of the fireplace sections. However, one of the upright members on the back of one of the sections and one of the upright members on the front of the other of the sections are offset from the respective rows. These offset upright members are adapted to be interleaved with adjacent upright members. Pivot pins are provided to the upper parts of these interleaved upright members to function as hinges for the grate sections so that either one of the grate sections may be turned over and placed in inverted orientation on the top of the other grate section.

Additional features of this invention will be set forth in the following specification, claims and drawing in which, briefly:

FIG. 1 is a top view of this grate;

FIG. 2 is a front view of this grate with an additional showing in broken outline of the right hand section swung over the top of the left hand section; and

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FIG. 3 is an end view of this fireplace grate showing the offset upright members.

Referring to the drawing in detail, reference numerals 10 and 11 designate the two sections of a fireplace grate which are hinged together by the pivot pins 12 and 13. The grate sections 10 and 11 are identical and interchangeable and they may be made of material such as cast iron, steel or the like. Each of these sections is provided with a plurality of horizontally positioned ribs which are provided for supporting the combustible material and which are spaced apart so that the ashes from the combustible material may fall to the floor of the fireplace on which the sections 10 and 11 are supported by legs 14 and 15, respectively.

Section 10 is provided with a front member 16 and a back member 17 and the ribs extending between these members are formed integral therewith. Upright members 18 and 18a are provided to the front member 16 and upright members 19 and 19a are provided to the back member 17. The back member 17 is provided with an offset portion 17a to which the upright member 19a is attached.

The other grade section 11 is provided with a similar arrangement of upright members except in this case the front member 20 is provided with an offset portion 20a and corresponds to the back member 17 with offset portion 17a provided to section 10. Front member 20 is provided with upright members 22 and 22a and back member 21 is provided with upright members 23 and 23a. Thus, back member 21 with its upright members 23 and 23a corresponds to the front member 16 of section 10 with its upright members 18 and 18a.

Upright members 18a, 19a, and 22a and 23a are provided with holes at the top parts thereof to receive the pivot pins 12 and 13 as shown in FIG. 1. These upright members are higher than the other upright members 18, 19, 22 and 23 so that the centers of the pivot pins 12 and 13 are substantially in line with the tops of the latter members. As a result when the grate section 10 is swung over upon the top of grate section 11, upright members 19 are adapted to rest on the tops of upright members 23 and likewise upright members 18 are adapted to rest on upright members 22 of section 11. In a similar way section 11 may be swung over upon the top of section 10 and in this case upright members 22 and 23 rest upon upright members 18 and 19, respectively.

While I have shown and described a preferred form of the invention it will be understood that the invention is capable of variation and modification from the form disclosed so that the scope thereof should be limited only by the scope of the claims appended hereto.

What I claim is:

1. In a collapsible fireplace grate the combination of a grate having two sections, said sections each having a plurality of upright members attached thereto, selected ones .of said upright members on said two sections being positioned adjacent to each other and being attached to each other by pivot means, said pivot means serving as pivotal connections between said sections so that either one of said sections may be swung over upon the other of said sections, selected others of said upright members on one of said sections being adapted to be substantially aligned with selected others of said upright members on the other of said sections when said one of said sections is turned over and positioned on said other of said sections whereby said selected others of said upright members on said other of said sections support said one of said sections.

2. In a collapsible fireplace grate the combination as setr forth in claim 1 further characterized in that said two sections of said grate are identical and interchangeable.

3. In a collapsible fireplace grate the combination as set forth in claim 1 further characterized in that said upright members are positioned on said grate sections along the front and back thereof to retain the combustible material placed on said grate.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 718,714 l/l903 Larson. 893,671 7/1908 St. John. 2,519,482 8/ 1950 Kutchera 126165 FOREIGN PATENTS 139,720 3 1920 Great Britain. 173,344 1/1922 Great Britain.

CHARLES J. MYHRE, Primary Examiner 

